Home Office

Immigration Controls

Lord Crisp: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to review their current immigration policies so that international students, qualified researchers, and experts across the health and science sectors can more easily enter the UK and participate in training, run courses, and attend meetings and conferences.

Lord Bates: We keep all categories of entry and the application process under regular review. The Home Office recently concluded a wide ranging review and consultation that led to the changes to the Immigration Rules for visitors in April this year. The changes included consolidation and simplification of all visitor categories from fifteen into four routes to provide flexibility on the activities a visitor can do, as well as some expansion of the permitted activities. These included business related activities such as participating in or running training courses, meetings and conferences.Under the Immigration Rules, visitors are allowed to teach one-off classroom sessions in the UK without pay and their sponsors are welcome to provide funding for flights and accommodation.More details on what people can do when visiting the UK and how to apply can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/standard-visitor-visa and the detailed Immigration Rules for Visitors can be found at this link: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules/immigration-rules-appendix-v-visitor-rules



Immigration Rules for Visitors
(PDF Document, 389.36 KB)

Passports: Interviews

Lord Roberts of Llandudno: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many adults applying for a passport for the first time have failed the personal interview test in each year since such interviews were required.

Lord Bates: Interview offices were established in 2008 for first time adult applicants. From 2008 to 2010 information on failed interviews was held in each Interview Office and not collated or transformed into centrally held data. A failed interview does not automatically mean the passport application has failed. It indicates that the interviewer was not fully satisfied with the answers given within the allotted interview time and the application requires further investigation.During this period a number of changes were made to the way in which we conduct our interviews; these changes have led to fewer interviews being failed. Our new interview processes are more flexible and allow us to gather more details from the applicant at the interview stage. This means that interview staff are able to progress the application to a point where they can advise central examining teams that a passport should be issued. Previously, with less freedom in the questions they could put to the applicant they may have had to fail the interview so that these details could be established by another means later on in the process.Calendar Year Volume of Interviews failed20102,39620112,00920121,01620137952014239

Asylum

Lord Laird: To ask Her Majesty’s Government which are the designated dispersal areas for asylum seekers in the UK; how many asylum seekers are currently registered as living in Northern Ireland; how many asylum seekers have been refused leave to stay in Northern Ireland; and what social security benefits asylum seekers are entitled to (1) while awaiting a decision, and (2) after a refusal to remain decision has been made.

Lord Bates: The Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, introduced the policy of national dispersal and was designed to introduce an equitable distribution across the country such that no one area was overburdened by the obligation of supporting asylum seekers. In accordance with that Act a number of local authorities across the UK, including those within the devolved administrations, have volunteered to participate in accomodating asylum seekers. There are currently 99 areas signed-up to participate.The Home Office publish figures on the number of asylum applicants living in dispersed accommodation (under Section 95), by local authority, in the quarterly Immigration Statistics release. The latest release for July-September 2015 is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-july-to-september-2015/asylumFigures on Section 95 support by local authority (including those in dispersed accommodation) are published in table as_16q, in volume 4 of the Asylum data tables: Asylum vol. 4: tables as 14 to as 19 q. These tables show that Northern Ireland is currently accommodating 497 applicants in dispersed accommodation. All will have claimed asylum in Northern Ireland.National figures are also published on decision outcomes at the above link.Home Office supports Asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute until their claim is fully determined and they have exhausted their appeal rights. Failed asylum seekers may be able to receive short-term support whilst preparing to return to their home country under section 4 of the 1999 Act.



Immigration Statistics July-September 2015
(Excel SpreadSheet, 3.84 MB)

Department for Education

Equality: Northern Ireland

Lord Kennedy of Southwark: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to bring equalities legislation in Northern Ireland into line with the rest of the UK.

Baroness Williams of Trafford: Equal opportunities is devolved to the Northern Ireland Assembly and therefore the Government has no legislative competence in this area.

Ministry of Justice

Prisoners: Radicalism

Lord Falconer of Thoroton: To ask Her Majesty’s Government which department has overall responsibility for deradicalisation programmes in prisons.

Lord Faulks: Deradicalisation work in prisons forms part of the Government’s Prevent strategy, which is the responsibility of the Home Office. The delivery of this work in England and Wales is the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice, through the National Offender Management Service. In Scotland, responsibility for delivery lies with the Scottish Government, through the Scottish Prison Service.

Department for Work and Pensions

Christmas Bonus

Lord Brabazon of Tara: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the total cost of distributing the £10 Christmas Bonus for pensioners.

Baroness Altmann: This information is not available.Both Pensioners and working age people in receipt of certain benefits receive the Christmas Bonus. Christmas Bonus payments are usually automatically generated based on receipt of a qualifying benefit. The cost of doing this is not separately identifiable from the administrative costs of the qualifying benefits.

Christmas Bonus

Lord Brabazon of Tara: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the value, in current prices, of the £10 Christmas Bonus for pensioners when it was first introduced.

Baroness Altmann: The Christmas Bonus was introduced in 1972 and was £10. In current (October 2015) prices, the value of the 1972 Christmas Bonus was £115.41.

Christmas Bonus

Lord Brabazon of Tara: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have any plans to change the £10 Christmas Bonus for pensioners.

Baroness Altmann: The Government has no plans to change the £10 Christmas Bonus.

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

Technology and Innovation Centres

Lord Allen of Kensington: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many catapult networks have been established by Innovate UK; what is the focus of each network; and how much funding they are providing to each network.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe: Innovate UK has established a network of 10 Catapult Centres covering a broad range of markets and technologies and Government investment will be around £557 million by 2015/16 but the future allocation between the individual catapults has not yet been finalised”. The Catapults are:High Value Manufacturing Catapult – seven individual centres working together to bring their expertise in different and complementary areas of high value manufacturing to provide an integrated capability and embraces all forms of manufacture using metals and composites, in addition to process manufacturing technologies and bio-processing.Cell Therapy Catapult – working to grow a viable and sustainable cell therapy industry in the UK.Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult – focused on development of commercially viable technologies applicable to offshore wind, wave and tidal power.Satellite Applications Catapult – helping UK businesses to develop new satellite-based products and services.Digital Catapult – working to position UK business to lead the introduction of radically new applications and experiences across the increasing breadth of internet services.Future Cities Catapult – helping to make cities to become smarter and more forward thinking.Transport Systems Catapult – supporting UK industry in exploiting the massive global market for new products and services that will drive the integration of transport and its systems and help UK businesses to develop effective and sustainable solutions to transport needs for both freight and people.Energy Systems Catapult – working to deliver economic value to Britain by making the transformation of the UK’s energy systems sector attractive to companies that are developing and growing new technology-based products and services by creating a critical mass of world class independent engineering and social science expertise in energy systemsPrecision Medicine Catapult – working to simplify and accelerate precision medicine product development and implementation, building the necessary partnerships between different therapeutic, diagnostic and informatics players in the sector, supporting existing and new companies and attracting inward investment by global life science companiesMedicines Technologies Catapult – still being established, but will work on the development of new technologies that better predict the response of humans, animals and environment to chemicals (for example prescription drugs, pesticides and cosmetics).

Skills Funding Agency

Baroness Sharp of Guildford: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the breakdown of the £172 million Learner Support budget of the Skills Funding Agency for 2015–16.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe: The Learner Support budget is predominantly demand-led and meets the costs of Discretionary Learner Support for grant-funded learners and the Advanced Learner Loan Bursary Fund for loan-funded learners. It also covers the government’s costs of the Professional and Career Development Loan scheme and Dance and Drama Awards for young adults.The forecasted total expenditure for the 2015-16 financial year currently stands at around £132 million. Discretionary Learner Support assists the most learners and may equate to nearly £86 million, while the Bursary Fund may equate to about £35 million of the expenditure. The remainder will be for the costs of Professional and Career Development Loans (c£2.5 million) and Dance and Drama Awards (c£8.5 million).